Montgomery remembers calling his admiral and saying, “We captured a boat, prisoners and an island. The admiral said, ‘You got what? An island?’”

The Curts had liberated a piece of Kuwait, but it almost didn’t get away with it. A short time later, the frigate nearly struck by the sort of minutes that later damaged two San Diego warships, Tripoli and Princeton.

Desert Storm ended in late February 1991. But more drama was ahead for Curts. In mid-June, the ship pulled into Subic Bay, Philippines, to conduct an ammuniton transfer. Montgomery was in the midst of the tricky business of docking his frigate when his executive officer told him to glance at the horizon.

“I looked up and thought, ‘holy crap,’” said Montgomery, a retired Captain. “There was this big mushroom cloud in the sky. Mount Pinatubo was venting. It began raining dirt, and we had to hustle back out to sea.”

The volcano soon produced the second biggest terrestrial explosion of the 20th century. Dirt continued to rain from the sky. But Curts made two return trips to Subic Bay, rescuing more than 500 dependents from Clark Air Force Base. Most of them ended up sleeping on bubble wrap as Curts sailed to safety.

The heroics in the gulf and in Subic Bay earned Curts a lot of praise. But there was change underway that would reduce, then eliminate, the need for Perry frigates. In the early 1990s, the Navy introduced the first of its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, a far more versatile and powerful ship that featured the world’s best radar system, and sophisticated equipment for hunting submarines. These destroyers have become the workhorse of the Navy.

In the early 2000s, the Navy also began to develop the littoral combat ship, a modern, faster variation of the frigate. That meant that money wouldn’t be available to upgrade frigates. The Navy also decided to remove guided missiles from the ships because the type they were using the Stanard-1MR, had become outmoded.

“Removing the missiles neutered the frigates,” said Wertheim, the defense analyst.

The Curts visited Key West, Florida in November 2004 to off-load illicit drugs that they had seized during raids on the open seas.
US Navy

The Curts visited Key West, Florida in November 2004 to off-load illicit drugs that they had seized during raids on the open seas.

Many Navy officials don’t agree, noting that the frigates have been effectively used for maritime security, surveillance, humanitarian missions, training and counter-narcotics. In 2004, Curts seized 30,000 pounds of cocaine in one day, and it seized $25 million in illicit drugs during its final deployment, which ended in November.

Capt. Yvette Davids, who commanded the Curts in 2007-08, points out that the ship spent part of her tenure guarding key oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf.

“I was aboard a frigate, and if I was ordered to do something, I could do it,” said Davids, who is now commander of the cruiser Bunker Hill.

Davids added that she doesn’t think of the Curts’ decommissioning as “the end of an era. All of the people under (Espinosa’s) command are going off to populate other ships. All that frigate learning is going to seep into the rest of the Navy.”

James Tinsley, the Curts’ first commander, said, “I think (historians) will be kind to the frigates. They did everything that they were asked ... They continue to do things well, even after 30 years.”